Kim Kardashian’s Esophagitis Diagnosis: What It Is and the Cancer Link

• Kim Kardashian says she has esophagitis, an inflammation of the esophagus, in the season 8 trailer for The Kardashians, released Sept. 17.
• The trailer shows her in a hospital gown and bed. Asked whether it’s what her father died of, she answers: “Yeah.”
• Robert Kardashian died of esophageal cancer in 2003. Esophagitis is not cancer, but long-term inflammation can lead to changes that raise the risk.

Kim Kardashian, 45, has revealed an esophagitis diagnosis in the season 8 trailer for The Kardashians, which Hulu released on Thursday (Sept. 17).

“I have something called esophagitis,” she says, over footage of her in a hospital bed and patient gown. A voice off camera asks about her father: “Isn’t it what he died of?” Kim answers, “Yeah.”

The trailer doesn’t say when she was diagnosed, what caused it or what the hospital visit was for. Kim hasn’t discussed it outside the show.

What is esophagitis?

The Mayo Clinic defines it as “swelling and irritation, called inflammation, of the tissues that line the esophagus,” the tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach.

The most common cause is acid reflux. Others include an allergic form called eosinophilic esophagitis, infections, and pills that irritate the lining when they get stuck on the way down.

It can make swallowing painful or hard and cause heartburn or chest pain. Doctors usually confirm it with an upper endoscopy: a thin tube with a camera passed down the throat, often with a small tissue sample taken for testing.

How is esophagitis linked to cancer?

Esophagitis itself is not cancer, and nothing in the trailer says Kim has cancer.

The link doctors watch for is chronic reflux. Over years, acid can damage the lining of the lower esophagus until its cells are replaced by a different type, closer to the lining of the stomach or intestine. That condition is called Barrett’s esophagus.

People with Barrett’s have a higher risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma, the most common type of esophageal cancer in the U.S. But “most people with Barrett’s esophagus do not get esophageal cancer,” according to the American Cancer Society, which is why the usual answer is monitoring with periodic endoscopies.

What happened to Robert Kardashian?

Robert Kardashian, the attorney best known for his role on O.J. Simpson’s defense team in the 1995 murder trial, was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in July 2003. He died on Sept. 30 that year, at 59.

In 2019, the family helped open the Robert G. Kardashian Center for Esophageal Health at UCLA Health, which treats and studies esophageal disease. Kim said then that she hoped “other families can have more information and we can also focus on health and prevention.”

It isn’t the first health storyline for Kim on the show. In season 7, she revealed that a scan had found a small brain aneurysm.

When does ‘The Kardashians’ season 8 premiere?

Season 8 premieres Thursday, Oct. 8, on Hulu, and streams on Disney+ for bundle subscribers. The rest of the trailer follows the sisters’ friction over how often they see each other and their dating lives.

More on her is on Kim Kardashian’s page, and the latest is in our Celebrities and TV & Reality sections. Also this week, Debby Ryan described a brain injury that took six months of rehab, and Lady Gaga’s baby name was revealed.

— Bruno Monteiro

Sources: The Kardashians season 8 official trailer, Hulu, Sept. 17, 2026 (quotes transcribed from the trailer); Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins Medicine (esophagitis); American Cancer Society (Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal cancer risk); UCLA Health (Robert G. Kardashian Center for Esophageal Health, 2019); E! News (Gabrielle Chung); TV Insider (Alyssa Norwin). Photos: frames from the official trailer, Hulu.